Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I’d decided on both as I walked into the library right before he usually took lunch. However, I came to a dead stop when I realized the fucking place was packed.
What the hell?
Wednesday was usually one of the slowest days of the week. That was why the library was only open half the day. I’d be the first to admit the library had a weird schedule, but we were a small town and Stefan really didn’t want to hire any more people.
For years, the library hadn’t been open all day Wednesday because there was no call for it. There was a local moms’ coffee group that would have breakfast at the diner and then they’d walk over to the library for story time, but that was about it.
Stefan had jazzed that up a bit because I’d seen an invoice for puppets and a few things like that, but there was no reason for half the town to be wandering around.
There were even people I knew hadn’t opened a book in years milling around.
And I knew Kenzie didn’t normally go there on Wednesdays, but even he was making circles around the circulation desk. I couldn’t decide if he was protecting Stefan from the crowd or pretending he was flying.
It could’ve gone either way until I saw him politely steer one of our older town residents away from the desk. “No, you’re not allowed to bug him. Mr. Librarian is working, and unless you’re checking out a book, you have to find something else to do.”
Were they all randomly stalking Stefan to see…something?
To ask something?
What were the nosy idiots doing?
Stefan didn’t seem stressed, so that kept some of my frustration at a manageable level. But everyone who glanced in my direction got a good glare…especially the ones who clearly didn’t have a library book in hand. They each backed away from the desk but were too nosy to actually leave the building.
Somehow being nosy made everyone entirely too brave.
Even some of the fucking mages.
I’d have thought they’d have more willpower or common sense, but I saw several milling around in the crowd pretending it was perfectly normal to be spying on the local librarian.
It was all ridiculous, which was probably why Stefan was studying them all curiously and trying not to smile. He might’ve liked the attention, but I had a feeling he was marveling at all the people he was getting to stare at.
Did any of them realize he knew?
Was that what the insanity was about?
I wanted my questions answered, but to do that I’d have to walk the gauntlet and go up to talk to Stefan. That was a problem, however, because I was currently carrying our lunch.
Fuck it.
I wasn’t ashamed to be dating him and I didn’t think he needed us to hide it either.
Making my way through the groups of people just standing around trying to eavesdrop, I ignored the handful that braved a smile to try to distract me and simply headed for Stefan. Just as I reached the desk, though, he actually started checking out a confused young teenage dragon who was trying his best not to snicker. “Thank you for helping me with my project, Mr. Librarian.”
God, Kenzie had the whole town doing it.
“You’re welcome, Chris.” Stefan started talking to him about some kind of school paper, so I tuned out and stepped away to give them privacy since it was a legitimate library issue.
It gave Kenzie the chance to finally notice me and I could see the relief on his face as he buzzed right over to me. “I didn’t do it.”
Lovely.
Ignoring the snickers around us, I tried to look calmer than I felt. “I know. You like Mr. Librarian and you wouldn’t cause chaos for him.”
That earned a few guilty looks from some of the eavesdroppers, but they weren’t feeling bad enough to actually leave.
“I do.” Kenzie rocked forward on his toes and back to his heels like he was barely holding his little side in. “I came in to give Mr. Librarian the book I thought I lost but I found, and there were so many people here. They keep asking him about his weekend and his day and what he thinks of interesting animals.”
Oh.
Well, that had certainly been subtle.
“Mr. Librarian wasn’t sure what to say and no one wanted to leave.” Kenzie shrugged like he wasn’t sure what they were doing. “I forgot my phone and I don’t have Daddy’s number memorized.”
That answered a few of my questions in one go.
“Thank you for doing your best to take care of Stefan.” He was insane but a wonderful friend in a lot of ways. “I’m sure everyone is getting ready to leave since they know the library is closed.”
“So he gets to eat lunch.” Someone from the other side of the room called that out, which would’ve blown our of course we’re human cover all to hell if Stefan hadn’t already figured it out. There was no way a human would’ve been able to hear our conversation from that far away.